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rgps

Aha moment on gray obsession

rgps
9 years ago

Warning: this is a very stupid post.
As I look at houzz and Pinterest and this site it seems everyone is all about grey and white and I didn't get it until on another thread someone asked me what colors my dogs are. This was to help determine the appropriate color for my upholstery. So now I get it. I have long blond hair which is now half grey and I'm realizing how much easier life would be if my shedding was less obvious if my decor was all grey.

Silly me for overlooking the obvious. And to think, my middle name is Gray and I'm a Quaker and I still don't love the color grey in decor.

Comments (26)

  • kswl2
    9 years ago

    I think it's just the swing of the pendulum, back and forth, color to neutral, vivid to pale, bright to pastel to white, over and over again. I stepped off the trendy color wheel in a big way when I decided to use variations of green and red, or green and gold, in every room except one, which is blue :-) Thought about neutrals for our most recent project but could not bring myself to live without lovely, abundant color.

  • tomatofreak
    9 years ago

    rpgs, that is funny. My floors are Saltillo, so I can't see any of my red hair on the floor; however, I can see plenty of gray, black and white dog and cat hair!

    We enclosed an unused garage a few years ago and I planned to epoxy the cement floor in a warm reddish golden tan color. My neighbor came over and launched into a that's-a-mistake-it's-not-neutral argument and I changed my mind. Went with steel gray. THAT was the mistake. Every red dog hair shows up like it's spotlighted. I could wring her neck - and mine.

  • patty_cakes
    9 years ago

    Not a stupid post! There *was* an obsession with gray, but in my neck if the woods, which us Austin, it definitely on the decline. I sell in a local antique mall, and a year ago there were vendors painting vintage furniture different shades of gray, but that seems to have come to an end. I've been painting my furniture blue for over 2 years, and it's still seems to be popular. The vendors who painted gray, are starting to use blue also. but because I use a different technique it's ok with me.

    I have no gray in my home either, but plenty of it in my closet! It's just happenstance, but supposedly it's the latest 'rage' for fall fashions. For once I'll be fashionable w/o even trying. ;)

  • Bunny
    9 years ago

    I have gray hair. Um, silver? My house's exterior is gray with white trim. I have gray tile floor in my bathrooms. I wear a lot of charcoal gray.

    I love the look of warm gray and white or cream. It makes me feel clean and balanced. But I don't think I could live with it on my walls. A bit too downbeat in large amounts in an enclosed space (cinder block).

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    So glad to see that I am not alone in my dislike of grey. Every time I see a post requesting help with choosing a paint color I brace myself for a plethora of grey suggestions. I often wonder if anyone dare to be original.

  • rhomy
    9 years ago

    as an artist I love colors!! But-- I cannot live in lots of it. I have had white walls since building (1992) and still am refreshed every time I enter my home. I do have lots of colors in accents just in small enough amounts so as not to overwhelm me. And grays, beiges, either look dirty to me or depressing!

  • blfenton
    9 years ago

    I live in the PNW weather system. That means rain and gray from November to May. I don't know about anyone else in this area but there is NO gray in my house. Why would I want to bring that kind of outdoors indoors.

  • debrak2008
    9 years ago

    I love gray. I do find it interesting the different ways it makes people feel. I am always drawn to any shades of gray (except the book, LOL). Gray on walls, on me, gun metal gray cars, etc. My dream house would be gray. I also like black. Gray hints at black. Med to dark grays remind me of thunderstorms which are exciting so gray is never depressing. Gray is mysterious, alluring, solid.

    Are there any other gray lovers out there?

  • gyr_falcon
    9 years ago

    And here I thought the gray trend was just a backlash against the three decades of blahge. [typo intended ;) ]

  • tomatofreak
    9 years ago

    Yes, I do love gray. Don't have an obsession with it, but I love to deck myself out in a menswear gray suit with a ruffly white shirt.

    As for paint, I gravitate to houses painted a real gray, from medium to almost charcoal, once again with crisp white trim and a pop of color. I need to paint my living room walls and I'm tempted to use greige or gray with white or cream, but I also love color and so... well, I'm completely undecided.

  • ttodd
    9 years ago

    Sadly I once had a dog turned over to the shelter that I worked at because 'we redecorated and he no longer matches the interior'. Stunned.

    Today I noticed that my dog is the EXACT same color as the sheets currently on my bed.

  • missymoo12
    9 years ago

    I currently have that gray shingle house with the crisp white trim and white picket fence. Inside is colorful - yellows, pumpkin, green bathrooms. My bedroom walls are the color of a frosty from Wendy's...You get the picture.
    New house is yellow exterior. Interior is predominantly whites to gray. Dark gray. I love it. We have wonderful farmland and hills for views out all the windows. The colors of the nature; greens and browns, sky's of blue and silver. The sunsets! Once the drywall was in I absolutely could not put in colors that would compete with my "artwork"
    I'm so old I've had every color in the book. The white to gray seems restful for now.

  • tomatofreak
    9 years ago

    missymoo12, I'm a country kid (or at least was) and I never lived in a house that was not white or gray. I was outside so much, I can't tell you the color of one interior room!

  • Errant_gw
    9 years ago

    So it's the increasing number of gray hairs that's making want gray in my bedroom? I had no idea! I thought maybe it was just me growing tired of all the accent walls that were in this house when I bought it. Every room had one... all three bathrooms, three bedrooms, laundry room, stairwell, you name it! With at least a dozen different paint colors, six different Mexican ceramic tiles, and mountains of hideous fake stone, I've been on color overload since buying this house nearly four years ago. A bit of gray sounds quite soothing right now. It might even help slow the sudden appearance of all of these gray hairs :)

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    Maybe my not caring for grey is that it is as ubiquitous as beige once was. Well....that and the fact that when I opened my battery business grey walls with diamond plate faced counters seemed like the best choice for an industrial type business.

    Though I am sick to death of grey walls in my shop and would never want them in my home I can still appreciate how lovely the right grey can look. I also love grey for an exterior if the trim is a crisp white with either navy or black shutters.

  • oldbat2be
    9 years ago

    What can I say? I love the right gray and am so sick of yellow everywhere. (Last color I over-used). My excuse is that my mother dressed me in brown growing up. Considering I had a Continental education, it's not as bad as it sounds but there was a lot of wool and tweed in there as well! I've found coming back to the boring colors (brown, gray) brings relief, satisfaction and pleasure.

  • Em11
    9 years ago

    When I first saw all the grays and neutral tones a few years ago, the first thing I thought of was the 1959 version of the movie 'Imitation of Life'. There's a lot of gray in the home interiors in that movie. I've always loved it. My parents house was mostly grays and neutrals until the 70s, and then Mom did the green and gold thing. I always attributed the recent years affection of gray to the return of mid-century modern. Here's a link I googled that has a few pictures of the Imitation of Life house.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Imitation of Life photos

  • Kiwigem
    9 years ago

    My affinity for grey has always been due to alternately falling in love with color pallets anchored in brown and then black and then dark blue at about 5 years intervals. Grey fits equally well into all camps, and is thus, for me, the safest neutral purchase be it a pair of boots (my Uggs are grey- goes with all my coats!) or a can of paint. Whether I'm feeling granola or glam, grey works.

  • Errant_gw
    9 years ago

    That's exactly how I am with black, Kiwi.

  • OKMoreh
    9 years ago

    Most of my clothes are grey, at least partly because of having black-and-white cats. I have "fog" paint for the living room walls but haven't done the painting yet.

  • madeyna
    9 years ago

    I love grey and use it in clothing but I cann,t seem to live with it on walls. When I go to someone elses house who has it on the walls I cringe . It just doens,t read warm and welcoming to me . I am from the grey northwest as well so that might play a part in it. At least 90% of the time our skys are grey

  • coll_123
    9 years ago

    I love gray. I have had gray walls in my main living space for many years and never get sick of it. ...although I remember how hard it was to find just the right shade at the time. The bedrooms walls are more colorful- orange, turquoise, and gray-blue-purple. It's just personal taste...a lot of people love soft yellow on walls and I could never live with that. Guess I am a little raincloud, lol I also couldn't live with taupe or beige...just have done too many taupey beige glazes for clients in my life.

  • Heather Way
    6 years ago

    I don’t think that your post is stupid at all. I personally find the gray trend very depressing. We live in depressing times. I for one crave warmth and color.

  • oldbat2be
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    The fun part of these old threads being revived is figuring out what you said. I stand by my old comments :)

  • Heather Way
    6 years ago

    “Oldbat2be” (and I hate calling you that—it sounds too negative), I totally get where you’re coming from. Our experiences are so personal and psychological.

    It’s interesting, no?